Mother Says System Failed Son and His Victims

The woman says the boy’s caretakers could have prevented recent assaults.

A 15-year-old, mentally-handicapped boy is scheduled to be in
juvenile court today. He faces charges of sexually assaulting
children. The boy seems to be right on the edge…. of
predator… and victim…and the system seems to be ill-equipped to
handle him.

The boy's mother, Heaven Richie says she will do whatever she
has to… to make sure her son never does this again.

RICHIE: "I have survived things like that myself and
that I am 42 years old and it still hurts me to this day.
I've explained this to my son. I've explained how he scared
that little boy... how he hurt that little boy. And he is
sorry."

Sergeant Andrew Pettit with the Sacramento Police Department
says the most recent attack by the boy came at Sim Park in
southeast Sacramento. A couple briefly lost track
of their seven-year-old son.

PETTIT: "One of the employees was able to give us
excellent video footage The video showed the suspect and the victim
walking away from the area where the incident occurred. "

An officer who knows the area thought to check the local group
home.

PETTIT: "That suspect was actually in that group home, wearing
the same clothes. He was in our system."

He was in the system -having been cited and released by
Sacramento County Sheriffs deputies a month earlier for the felony
sexual assault of a five-year-old boy. Sheriff Scott Jones
says deputies often cite and release felony charges, but this case
put officers in an unusual position.

JONES: "You had the juvenile's legal guardian present
there willing and wanting to take custody of the juvenile and
assuring the officers that he would be kept away from other
juveniles to prevent such a recurrence. He had a diminished
mental capacity. Even, then the officers weren't completely
convinced, and so they contacted the child abuse sergeant, the
supervisor. "

The boy was released into the custody of the group home employee
who had lost site of him while shopping. Heaven Richie says
her son was with the same employee a month later before the assault
at Sim Park. Richie says there were at least two other
incidents dating back to 2009 and the employee knew he couldn't let
her son leave his sight.

But she says her son is not a predator. She says he has a
form of cerebral palsy that has left him with the mental capacity
of a child half his age. And she believes he was abused in a
previous foster home.

RICHIE: "When I try to bring it up, my son pretty much refuses
to speak. He will nod his head in agreement that somebody did
this with him, but he will not tell me who."

Richie says she has been clean and sober for almost a
year. She is trying to regain custody of the boy. She
says it's obvious the supervision provided by the group home's
owner has been inadequate.

RICHIE: "She cannot do what she needs to do to get my son
where he needs to go in order to get him better. I think it's
her fault about the victims…about everything."

The Antiporda-Cerezo Small Family Home is under investigation by
the California Department of Social Services.